System and method for controlling a level crossing of a railway track

1. A system for controlling a level crossing of a railway track installation, the railway track installation comprising at least one track, the system comprising:

at least two magnetometers associated with the at least one track and placed at corners of a crossing area between the at least one track and a road;

a level crossing control unit configured for receiving data from the magnetometers;

wherein each magnetometer is arranged to detect a respective magnetic field vector of the earth's magnetic field and to send data representative of said magnetic field vector to the control unit, the control unit being configured to elaborate said data to detect changes in the magnetic field vectors due to the presence of a train in the crossing area and to control the level crossing as a function of said detected changes.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is arranged to control level crossing warning devices associated to the crossing area.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said magnetometers are placed near the rails of the at least one railway track or buried in the ground or mounted on or in ties of the at least one railway track.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein said data representative of magnetic field vector are sent by each magnetometer to the control unit through a safety communication protocol.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is arranged to detect a strong shift in the magnetic field vector from a reference when the train passes near the magnetometers.

6. The system of claim 1 , further including calibrated magnetic field sources associated to a respective magnetometer and configured to verify the sensitivity of each magnetometer to ensure the correct operation of each magnetometer.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the calibrated magnetic field sources are arranged to generate corresponding test magnetic vectors to be detected by the magnetometers, so as to verify that corresponding integrity test data are not impacted by other external magnetic fields.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein said calibrated magnetic field sources are controlled energy sources including an inductor.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the calibrated magnetic field sources are packaged with the respective magnetometer and positioned with a predetermined orientation.

10. A method for controlling a level crossing of a railway track installation, the railway track installation comprising at least one track, the method comprising the steps of:

placing the at least two magnetometers of the system according to any of the preceding claims at corners of a crossing area between the at least one track and a road;

detecting, through said magnetometers, respective vectors of the earth's magnetic field;

sending data representative of said vectors to the control unit;

detecting, through the control unit, changes in the magnetic field vectors so as to determine if a train is present in the crossing area,

controlling, through the control unit, the level crossing as a function of said changes.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising providing a calibrated magnetic field source associated to each magnetometer and arranged to generate a respective test magnetic vector to be detected by the associated magnetometer, to be used to verify the sensitivity of the magnetometer to ensure its correct operation.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising dynamically modifying the calibrated magnetic field source so as to obtain different test magnetic vectors, to be used to verify that corresponding integrity test data are not impacted by an external magnetic field.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising sending the representative data of the integrity tests performed through the calibrated magnetic field source from the magnetometer to the control unit, which in turn verifies if the integrity tests have failed, thus assuming that the crossing area is occupied.